Whey Could be Key to Barrier Coatings

Published on 2003-09-30. Author :
SpecialChem

FRESNO, Calif., Sept. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- In Miss Muffet's day,
whey was eaten along with curds. But until recently many commercial
cheese manufacturers in the United States have treated whey as sewage
or animal feed.

Now, new uses for the cheesemaking by-product are being developed at
the UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology aimed at
giving whey added value and providing dairies a needed economic
boost.

The UC Agricultural Issues Center (AIC) has published an AIC Issues
Brief that reports the potential gains to producers from new uses of
whey. Economists calculated the cost of research and development,
which began at UC Davis in 1990 and was estimated through 2005, to be
$4.9 million. Financial support flows from the dairy industry and
consumers through producer and processor assessments. Support also
comes from grants and overhead paid by the University of California.

"Even with our narrow measure of research benefits, ... the return on
investment in research may be significant if the new technologies are
adopted by industry for only a few years," say the authors, AIC
policy analyst Fiona Hutchinson, AIC postgraduate researcher Joseph
Balagtas, UC Davis food science professor John Krochta and AIC
Director Daniel Sumner.

To make cheese, manufacturers add an enzyme to milk, causing it to
curdle. The curds are processed into cheese. The watery liquid
leftover is whey.

Due to the development of new refinement techniques, as well as
increasing awareness of the environmental and financial costs of whey
disposal, manufacturers have found it profitable to process whey into
high-protein products for use as food ingredients. For example, whey
protein is used in bakery products, infant formulas and energy bars.
Nevertheless, currently about 30 percent of whey is not sold. In
addition, as cheese production grows to meet increased consumer
demand, more whey is produced.

UC Davis scientists developed and hold patents on processes in which
whey can be made into films and coatings for food products and
plastics. The researchers believe that three new uses for whey could
be implemented by industry in 2004:

- Oxygen-barrier coatings on food. For example, coating snack peanuts
and nuts to be used in candy with the refined and processed whey
film. The coating protects nuts from oxygen that causes rancidity and
therefore extends the shelf life of the nuts or confection.

- Gloss coatings on candy. Candy manufacturers are looking for an
alternative to food-grade shellac, an imported glaze made from the
resinous secretions of the lac insect. The whey alternative will be a
domestic product and will not have shellac's tight environmental
regulations.

- Oxygen-barrier coatings on plastics. Most plastics that are good
moisture barriers are poor oxygen barriers. Whey coating for plastic
developed by UC Davis research provides an oxygen barrier and may
substitute for current technologies that make plastic non-
recyclable. "We see this as a win-win-win situation," said Krochta,
in whose lab these innovations were developed. "Farmers would benefit
from the increased market for whey, food processors benefit with less
expensive and more environmentally sound products, and consumers
benefit from higher food quality. There is also an overall benefit to
the state's economy."

Research on applications for the new technologies is continuing in
Krochta's lab, even as scientists are working with the food industry
to commercialize the first three applications. Three additional
potential applications of whey are being investigated at the UC Davis
lab: moisture barriers for food, anti-microbial coatings on cheese,
and edible or biodegradable films and containers.

The AIC Issues Brief concludes that higher whey demand will result in
higher whey prices, which would be offset in part by lower cheese
prices as cheese manufacturing increases to meet whey demand. The
likely increase in U.S. demand for whey from these new innovations is
3 percent, according to the study's authors. Ultimately, the
researchers estimate in the AIC Issues Brief that conservative
implementation of just the three new uses for whey would increase
annual U.S. dairy farm revenue $10 million and California dairy farm
revenue $1.9 million. Adoption of other concepts being developed by
the Krochta lab would further increase revenue. The new uses for whey
also reduce the costs of manufacturing candy and plastic products.

Additional data from the study are in the AIC Issues Brief
titled "Potential Gains to Producers from New Uses for Whey," which
is available online at http://aic.ucdavis.edu (click "Issues
Briefs").

The UC Agricultural Issues Center, based at UC Davis, conducts
research and outreach programs on issues central to maintaining
California agriculture's competitive edge. The center provides
broadly based and objective information about these issues and their
significance for California's economy and natural resources.